Lord of the Harvest

  
I recently harvested some mint in my backyard.  It was full and beautiful and overflowing.  I had visions of making mint extract and mint chocolate chip ice cream and mint lip balm.  I gathered my gloves and not-so-handy teflon shears and went to work, thinking I'd lop em to death and let them sit out in the scorching sun for an hour or so while I weeded the rest of the massively overgrown forest underneath our deck.   To my dismay, most all of the mint didn't make it.

This is an example of an improper harvesting.   The time was right.  The mint was ripe.  But I lacked the proper tools... in my case being some forethought, perhaps a brain, and some better shears... :)

There is a different harvest I will be referring to in this posting.  A much better one.  And Jesus Himself is the Lord of it.  It's a harvest of His people for His glory forever!  And the tools that He has chosen to properly bring about a harvest are prayer, laborers, and His Word.  God has called Christians to pray earnestly that God would send laborers out into this harvest to gather up people for Himself.  To take the message of the gospel as proclaimed in His Word and share it with others.  And He for those who believe, He promises to be with them always... He is worthy of a bounty for sure.

This past weekend was our church's annual missions conference, in which we learned much about this harvest.  We got to hear from Pastor Bob Selph from Grace Baptist Church in Taylors South Carolina and also from another worker headed to the middle east.

We were excited to be able to host the workers headed to the middle east and get to know them and their children even more personally.  It is truly humbling and inspiring to be able to meet people such as this who are living each day set on the promises of God in His Word and the belief that Jesus Christ is worthy of not only our praise.. but the praise of the nations.

Here are some of the verses and topics that were unwrapped for us over the course of the weekend:

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Praise the Lord, all nations!  Extol him, all peoples!  For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord! ~Psalm 117:1-2

And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed.  ~Acts 13:48

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. ~Matthew 28:19-20

 -Biography of missionary Samuel Zwemer

 -"Go, send, or disobey..." ~John Piper

And Jesus went throughout all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction.  When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.” ~Matthew 9:35-38

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Lord of the Harvest,   Matthew 9:35-38  by a worker in the middle east

Hearing from Matthew 9:35-38 was powerful for us as the text was unpacked piece by piece.  I've summarized it loosely below.  Though I'm definitely short-handing it, this is an example of Expositional Preaching that some of you have heard Matthew and I talk about.  The weekend was so encouraging for us that I just needed to sit down today and go through it all again... so here ya go!

Q: What is the content of this passage and how it relates to what we pray?

1. "Therefore...pray" -  Not go first... pray first.   Apart from the work of the Holy Spirit through our actions, our actions are meaningless.

2. "...pray earnestly to the Lord of the Harvest.." -  Picture a farmer preparing his fields.  The Lord is the farmer and one day there will be a harvest, and those who are trusting in His blood to cover their sins will be saved and spend eternity with Jesus.

Luke 3:17 His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.

3. "...to send out laborers..." - God does the calling and the sending.  It would be unwise for you to just up and go without being sent by God.  Pray for the harvest, and pray that God would raise up laborers.  And if He is calling you specifically to go, go :).  Also, God is calling for both quality and quantity of laborers.  Quality in that a farmer would go and get the people who he has prepared to harvest his crops.  Quantity in the words from the portion of the verse that says, "harvest is plentiful and workers are few."

Q: How should that affect the manner in which we pray?

~Pray with knowledge, compassion, persevering urgency, and faith~

Pray with Knowledge

1. "When He saw the crowds..." - Jesus already had compassion for people as seen in all of scripture.  But there is a sense here in which we have the example of needing to see the pain and need for God that people have all around us.  He gave the example of taking the bus around town rather than your car.  You might then see people you wouldn't have seen otherwise.  How can we have compassion if we don't even know what's around us?

Pray with Compassion
2. "...because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd." - Jesus was grieved by their physical needs but more-so by their spiritual condition.  We were encouraged to get past, for example, the superficial facade of a neighbor and see people who are distressed and dispirited and without a shepherd.

Pray with Persevering Urgency

3. Go back to farmer analogy.  Without persevering, it won't last.  Plants must be harvested when ready..there is an urgency there.

Pray with Faith

4. God exists!  And He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.   

 And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. ~Hebrews 11:6

Application

. If you don't yet know Christ, His offer is for you.  In order to be one of his sheep, you must believe the true gospel of Jesus Christ:

Jesus is God.  He came from heaven to earth to live a perfect live because it pleased the Father and because we could not live that perfect life.  His death was the punishment our sin deserved, so he 'paid our debt'... we can now have access to Jesus now and in eternity by believing in His shed blood on that cross and His resurrection from the dead...something only Jesus could do for us as sinners.    Because Jesus is Holy, or, 'set apart' from us, we cannot have access to him if we come in our sin.  We must be cleansed with the cleansing blood of Christ.  We must come to him with, "Nothing in my hand I bring... simply to thy Cross I cling..."  By believing in this gospel that Christ died to save sinners, we can have his Holy Spirit inside of us.  He promises to give us His Holy Spirit along with a new heart that has new affections.  It is by God's grace that you are saved through faith.  And good works will then be the outward result of an inward change... they will not merit it.  

For by grace you have been saved through faith.  And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. ~Ephesians 2:8

As a believer, God will 'sanctify' or transform you more into His likeness through prayer and the reading of His Word, which is living and active and infused with his Holy Spirit.

. Pray for the nations to trust in Christ alone for eternal redemption.  Pray that the Lord would raise up laborers, and that we would be faithful to either GO or SEND... but not choose neither. Pray for the missionaries and sending churches.

. Listen to local and international news

. Take the bus!

. Have a world map or globe in your home

. Own the book Operation World, read it with family
. Consider adoptions or foster care or supporting the adoption of children into homes that will share with them this gospel
. etc.

Come, My Soul, Thy Suit Prepare  

Portion of hymn by John Newton..."suit" meaning lawsuit or argument

Come, my soul, thy suit prepare:
Jesus loves to answer prayer;
He Himself has bid thee pray,
Therefore will not say thee nay;

Thou art coming to a King,
Large petitions with thee bring;
For His grace and power are such,
None can ever ask too much.